Thursday 13 October 2011

Nurdling for beginners

I have just returned from a fantastic week of walking and collecting on the stunning North Cornwall coast... in a heatwave...seafog... and gales....



Beaches there seem much cleaner than here in Suffolk - though after three days of gales from the west, this can all change as the transatlantic plastic rolls in...

However, even in mild weather, the tideline at some beaches was a shock to see: thousands of nurdles and tiny plastic pieces as far as you can see...

tideline at Constantine Bay

tideline at Perranporth

a typical 'cell' of marine litter and debris on the tideline at Perranporth

Many of these plastic pieces are nurdles - small resin discs which are the raw material for the manufacture of plastics. As a result of spills, these are found on beaches throughout the world.

Jane Darke (Wrecking Season film-maker and artist) and I went collecting at Watergate Bay to harvest nurdles to show to children in schools.

If you haven't been nurdling before, here's how you do it:
Scoop up the plastics at the high tide line with a sieve or colander, shaking to remove as much sand as possible.


some of the unsorted debris we collected
Tip into basins of water to allow the sand to drop to the bottom. Remove plastics with sieve and lay out on trays to dry.

drying trays of rubbish on the Aga
the unsorted debris with just the sand and larger pieces removed


When dry, pick through to sort out nurdles from the rest of the debris. We also sorted our debris into polystyrene pieces (there were lots), other plastic pieces (there were even more) and natural debris (wood, seaweed, feathers).
WARNING: this takes hours and is best done over a beer!!

some of the wood, feathers and seaweed we extracted
 
some of the plastic pieces
... and the nurdles!

Finally a bowl of nurdles emerged... We counted a sample and weighed what we had picked out and - incredibly -  the small soup bowl held in excess of 9000 nurdles!!! And these were collected from just a few metres of shoreline at the top of Watergate Bay.

Nurdles are a pervasive pollutant found in billions on beaches all over the world and are major concern not just because of they are often ingested by seabirds and other marine wildlife but also because the resin pellets accumulate dangerous organic pollutants such as PCBs and organochlorine pesticides which can work their way into the foodchain.

For more about nurdles, follow this link. And if you have lots of nurdles on a beach near you, why not follow our beginner's guide to nurdling and take part in Dr. Hideshige Takada's global survey of pollutants in nurdles at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.  Here are Dr Takada's results so far - it's sobering reading...

pristine Perranporth beach...until you look at the high tide line

So next time you are walking on the beach - wherever in the world you might be - look closely... you might not like what you find.








 


Wednesday 27 July 2011

More hanging about...

Full-on day installing my hanging lines in the Dovecote Studio at Snape today... thankfully with amazing help from James, who unlike me, clearly has a head for heights! Lots still to do but it's looking exciting... (unlike my studio at home which is very plain now all the rubbish has been boxed up and shipped out - might even have some space to do some painting!!)



Friday 22 July 2011

Hanging about...

 I recently took a group of artist friends to explore and collect along the tideline at Covehythe. As ever, the beach was stunning but with erosion continuing at a frightening pace...




But I was presented with a mystery... On a previous walk at Covehythe I found over 70 balloons along the tideline... this time virtually none. Have the estate agents, banks, fast food outlets and charities finally got the message about balloon releases, I mused?
But the mystery was soon solved when, towards the end of the beach, I found that a fellow collector had got there before me and created this...


... so we will still get this...


Monday 27 June 2011

A nice line in rubbish...

Suddenly I am an expert on fishing line...
It's all part of the preparation for the installation I am creating for the Dovecote Studio at Snape Maltings for the Snape Proms (throughout August). The Dovecote is an amazing building and VERY tall and soon will be home to a nice line in rubbish...

Meanwhile busy here playing (as usual) with lots of rubbish and becoming quite a connoisseur of knots!
Hopefully it will all come together soon...

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Sand play


I had a brilliant time the other day playing on the beach at Winterton in Norfolk with teacher and animator, Becca, who was gamely showing me how to animate plastic! After weeks of drought and sunshine, the weather was VERY testing with huge downpours at regular intervals (though sadly not a drop at home in Suffolk in my drought-ridden garden).
But we managed to test a couple of ideas between storms - you can see what Becca did here....

Can't wait to put what I learnt into practice soon!








Thursday 19 May 2011

The time is right for air raids...

The air seen from the earth


Recent weeks have seen air pollution alerts in England and Wales, with Defra urging the public to take "sensible precautions". For more details see BBC news report. So now is the time to take very seriously the issue of safeguarding your future air supplies. Luckily I have already prepared the resources necessary to help you do this - visit flyintheface.com to find out how.

Air quality too poor in your area to go air raiding?
Then consider applying for one of my exclusive boxes of Fresh Air to tide you over...



And check out what's happening in Norwich this weekend:
Other/other/other have a organised a good clean run on 21st May to highlight the city's air quality as part of Invisible Dust, a project which “involves leading world artists and scientists collaborating to explore air pollution, health and climate change”, and which is taking place as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival....


Check out their websites here:
other/other/other blog
invisible dust

Monday 9 May 2011

Mothballed at sea

My friend Bridget brought me an unusual present last Friday, found whilst she was taking a morning swim at Dunwich. Beautifully packaged to coordinate with her dress, we wondered could it be sweets...or were they perhaps bath bombs...?
But on closer inspection all became clear:

These were mothballs which seemingly had indeed been mothballed at sea, for the expiry (or perhaps production) date on the packaging was 01-2002!

Some of the instructions were pretty intriguing too: for clthes, leathers, book and file to antiworm, antimildewand water closet's antifoul. CAUTION: far away from food, Tableware, toy, Children, Can't eat, please see a doctor if eati it.

 More intriguing, as this product was clearly not destined for the British market and, being unopened, had presumably not been deliberately jettisoned from a ship, is how it came to be floating in the North Sea at all... 

Another mystery in the waves.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Sea of Napoli

We spent a wonderful few days in Dorset/Devon last weekend including a lovely time on the beach at Branscombe  - site of the MSC Napoli grounding in January 2007, resulting in the spillage of the contents of many of its 2394 containers into the sea and onto the shore...
What a contrast now (and with our North Sea beaches on the Suffolk coast - perpetual victim of huge quantities of shipping waste) : on my short walk on the beach I found only one piece of (visible*) marine litter, shown below.


* who knows what traces of other pollutants remain... according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, about 150 of the Napoli's containers held "hazardous" substances including industrial and agricultural chemicals.
Despite this - and arctic water temperatures - we enjoyed a lovely swim... come on in the water may be lovely!!









Wednesday 20 April 2011

A new world record!!

Found on a local beach: the oldest recorded crisp packet ever washed up on a beach anywhere*...



Sadly this pre-decimal packet of Golden Wonder crisps was not found by me but, rather appropriately, by flyintheface artist-in-residence, Jane Darke, whilst staying here earlier this month. Jane is well known for her 'wrecking' on the Atlantic coast Cornwall coast which she documented with her late husband Nick Darke in her brilliant and haunting film, The Wrecking Season.
 To see more of Jane's work, visit her website.

* unless you know different....?

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Skipping in Orford

Earlier this month our  second 'residents' were here: Jane Darke (film-maker & painter from Cornwall) and Andrew Tebbs (photographer, sculptor and more... from Derbyshire). On a quick walk round Orford, both Jane's (longterm wrecker!) and my eyes alighted on a skip in Quay Street in which we found this discarded carved lobster plaque...

- a really apt find in view of Jane's own lobster fishing and not least her film The Art of Catching Lobsters, an extraordinary and moving film shot on the rugged North Cornwall coast, in which Jane records her husband Nick's life as a fisherman, beachcomber and playwright... 'a film about how to manage love... and the loss of it'.
To read more about the film, see theartofcatchinglobsters.com

Talking Walking...


Last summer on a very wet, cold and windy day, I was interviewed by Andrew Stuck (producer of Talking Walking) whilst walking on the beach between Thorpeness and Sizewell. You can now hear the interview here...

Thursday 14 April 2011

Where in the world...?

I witnessed some amazing changing landscapes on my recent travels...







...but no need to go to North Africa or the Middle East - it's all here on the English east coast (but, hurry, as you can see, it's disappearing fast...)

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Going wild in the forest...

The  flyintheface residency is launched! Essex artist Gordon Flemons christened the studio and had a wonderful week exploring Captains Wood, recording sound and vision...
For more of Gordon's work visit http://www.gordonflemons.com




Wednesday 6 April 2011

Defending the galaxy...


Someone's been partying out at sea... I recently walked along the beach at Covehythe and found 72 balloons washed up on the shoreline. Balloons released in the south-east nearly always end up out at sea because of the prevailing southwesterlies. Wherever they land they cause a major hazard to wildlife, but particularly at sea where they can either entangle sea creatures or can be swallowed having been mistaken for jellyfish (turtles' main food source).


Here's what I found:



Balloons don't just injure wildlife out at sea - a swift fell from the sky into my garden last summer, having flown into a latex balloon from a charity balloon release, which burst around its neck and wings... (this bird was lucky - we were on hand and able to release it...)


For more information see the Marine Conservation Society's  Don't let go campaign.